Atheists often claim that the laws of nature alone have brought into existence the whole universe and all the life in it.
But laws are never causes – they are simply modes describing how causes act. When we add two thousand-rupee notes to the three thousand-rupee notes in our pocket, the law of arithmetic explains rationally how our pocket contains five thousand-rupee notes. The law of mathematics can’t increase our pocket balance. To imagine that the law of arithmetic can make a pauper into a millionaire is poor fiction.
To imagine that the laws of motion can make a neighborhood street batsman into the next Sachin Tendulkar is poor fiction.
Similarly, the laws of nature describe the mode of interaction between different material objects. But they never initiate the actions. Thus, Newton’s laws can describe the trajectory of a cricket ball when a batsman hooks it over the boundary. But it is the batsman who sets the ball in motion, not the laws. To imagine that the laws of motion can make a neighborhood street batsman into the next Sachin Tendulkar is poor fiction.
And the atheistic fiction is not just poor, but also pure. Why? Because it asks to believe that the laws of nature created the cricketer and the ball – in addition to somehow creating themselves too. Having no semblance with reality or even rationality, such atheistic fiction causes credulity to stretch beyond breaking point Far more intelligible is the spiritual tenet of an omnipotent God as the source and cause of everything. The Bhagavad-gita (09.10) indicates that material nature works under Krishna’s supervision – he is the creator and activator of the laws of nature. And Gita wisdom presents Krishna’s supremacy not as an article of faith, but as the centerpiece of a profound worldview that is intellectually satisfying and practically sublimating.
When contrasted with absurd atheistic fiction, Gita wisdom is eminently rational and entirely preferable.
The Big Bang and the Big Crunch are fully contained within the breathing of Maha Vishnu, Lord Sri Krishna’s expansion. When He exhales the material elements and universes emit from Him, and when He inhales everything withdraws back into Him. SB 12.4.29 states: ‘Although perceived, the transformation of even a single atom of material nature has no ultimate definition without reference to the Supreme Soul. To be accepted as factually existing, something must possess the same quality as pure spirit – eternal, unchanging existence.’ The reflection of the moon can never exist independently from the actual moon. Material nature is the external potency of the Lord. And since whatever has a beginning and an end is unreal, it is only the unintelligent that ponders the Lord to be a personified manifestation of this material nature.